Extensible Provisioning Protocol
Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) is an XML based protocol used by the Internet industry, particularly the registrars and registries in managing domain names (register, renew, modify, delete, transfer) and other elements in a Shared Registry System environment. It is the standard protocol used by a majority of gTLDs and ccTLDs.[1] As described by RFC 3730, EPP can be used in a multiple layered protocol and operating environments with different transport and security requirements. MIME media type application/epp+xml identifies the content of EPP.[2] The motivation for the creation of EPP was to create a robust and flexible protocol that could provide communication between domain name registries and domain name registrars
Service Elements Provided by EPP[edit | edit source]
EPP provides basic service elements, which include:
- Service discovery
- Commands
- Responses
- Extension framework supporting the definition of managed objects and the relationship of protocol requests and responses to those objects
EPP Command Categories[edit | edit source]
A command is initiated by clients. A certain command is processed by a server so that the client who initiated it will receive a response. EPP commands include:
- Session Management Commands- establish and end persistent sessions with an EPP server
- Query Commands- perform read- only object information retrieval operations
- Data Transform Commands- perform read-write object management operations
EPP Implementation[edit | edit source]
DotRegistrar and Key-Systems, Afilias, NeuStar, and VeriSign tested and implemented EPP on their servers. Other registries also adopted the protocol including:[3]
- .au, .eu, .us, .fr, .ag, .si, .at, .be, .br, .bz, .la, .cx, .gs, .tl, .ki, .ms, .mu, .nf, .ht, .na, .cz, .hn, .co.cz, .it, .lc, .lu, .me, .mn, .uk, .no, .nl, .nu, .pt, .sc, .se, .ch, .li, .vc, .cc, .tv, .cn, .tw, .im, .cl, .ac, .sh, .io, .tm, .in, .es (over HTTPS), .pl (over HTTPS), .tc, .gd, .vg
- i.3.4.e164.arpa (infrastructure ENUM) in Austria)
Related RFCs[edit | edit source]
- RFC 3735- Guidelines for Extending the Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- RFC 3915- Domain Registry Grace Period Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- RFC 4114- E.164 Number Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- RFC 4310- Domain Name System (DNS) Security Extensions Mapping for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- RFC 5730- Extensible Provisioning Protocol
- RFC 5731- Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Domain Name Mapping
- RFC 5732- Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Host Mapping
- RFC 5733- Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Contact Mapping
- RFC 5734- Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport over TCP
References[edit | edit source]